Super Delegates lean towards Obama.

Since failing to wrap up the Democratic presidential nomination on Super Tuesday, Hillary Clinton has been concentrating on the much more controversial notion of persuading the Super Delegates to back her - even if that meant rejecting the choice of the electorate in individual states. Something which she has always claimed is the Super Delegates right to do, arguing that their duty is not to follow the electorate, but to elect a candidate who can beat McCain.

The New York Times has been interviewing lots of Super Delegates and, whilst they are very unhappy at the prospects of a prolonged fight between Barack and Hillary, they are also apparently adamant that they will not overturn the democratic wishes of the people. Which begs the question: what the Hell is Hillary doing?

While many superdelegates said they intended to keep their options open as the race continued to play out over the next three months, the interviews suggested that the playing field was tilting slightly toward Mr. Obama in one potentially vital respect. Many of them said that in deciding whom to support, they would adopt what Mr. Obama’s campaign has advocated as the essential principle: reflecting the will of the voters.

Mr. Obama has won more states, a greater share of the popular vote and more pledged delegates than Mrs. Clinton.

A New York Times survey of superdelegates last week found that Mr. Obama had been winning over more of them recently than Mrs. Clinton had, though Mrs. Clinton retained an overall lead among those who have made a choice. Over the past month, according to the survey, Mr. Obama, of Illinois, picked up 54 superdelegates; Mrs. Clinton, of New York, picked up 31.

“If we get to the end and Senator Obama has won more states, has more delegates and more popular vote,” said Representative Jason Altmire, Democrat of Pennsylvania, who is undecided, “I would need some sort of rationale for why at that point any superdelegate would go the other way, seeing that the people have spoken.”

There is also an indication that Hillary's negative campaigning is now starting to hurt her, especially amongst the Super Delegates, who are now anxious to find a way to bring this election a conclusion.

The interviews were conducted at a time of rising displays of animosity between Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama, with Mrs. Clinton repeatedly arguing that Mr. Obama did not have the foreign policy credentials to stand up to Senator John McCain of Arizona, the likely Republican nominee. Several superdelegates said they were concerned that this could hurt the Democratic Party in the fall elections and put pressure on some of them to endorse one of the candidates to bring the contest to a quicker conclusion.

“It would be nice to find a way to wrap it up,” said Representative Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, who has not committed to either candidate. “If the current trajectory of the debate continues, the divisions will make it more difficult for many of our candidates.”

Nor are the Super Delegates going to vote solely based on whether or not a candidate won their particular state, which is even worse news for Hillary.

In Ohio, Senator Sherrod Brown would seemingly have an easy task. Mrs. Clinton won his state by 10 points. If the nominating fight had to be resolved by party leaders, wouldn’t he side with her? Not necessarily.

“It’s the overall popular vote, it’s the overall delegates, it’s who is bringing energy to the campaign, it’s who has momentum,” Mr. Brown said. “It should be wrapped up before the convention, and I think it will be.”

Nancy Pelosi has stepped into the argument with an interview which is to be broadcast soon:

“If the votes of the superdelegates overturn what’s happened in the elections, it would be harmful to the Democratic Party,” Ms. Pelosi, Democrat of California, said in an interview to be broadcast Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.”

Hillary's arguments on this subject have long been weak, and it now appears that the Super Delegates, the very people on whom she is relying to pull her campaign from the abyss, are simply not buying into her logic.

It's over. And it's been over since the morning of March 5th when it became obvious that, although she had won both Texas and Ohio, she had not won either by a sufficient amount to overturn Obama's delegate lead.

The Super delegates should commit to Obama as soon as possible, and bring this shoddy spectacle to a close.

Because it's clear to one and all that Hillary is not going to admit defeat, she will go on for as long as possible, and she doesn't appear to care about the damage that she is doing to the chances of a Democrat winning the White House in November.

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Tags: Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, US election 2008, super delegates, Democratic presidential nominee